Consulting Journal: Style - Business cards

Style: Business cards

by David Blakey

What should be on them? How should you give them out?

[Monday 24 February 2003]

There are two important areas of style for your business cards. The first is the design of your cards. The second is how you give your cards to people

Designing your cards

If you own your consulting business, then you can start from the beginning. Get samples of business cards from a printer and consider which style of card is best for you. Remember that the style should tell your prospects about you and your business. This may not necessarily be the style that you like best.

Range

Consider the many different styles of business card that are available today. Contrast these styles with the traditional styles.

You can go from one extreme - a coloured plastic card printed in a variety of colours, with a background image and your photograph, with your name, your position, your company name, your company logo, a single tag-line about your company, your company's postal address, your company's physical address, your company's telephone number, your direct dial telephone number, your mobile telephone number, your home telephone number, your email address, your fax number, and your website URL - to the other - a white card, printed in black, with your name, your company name, your company's postal address, your mobile telephone number and your email address.

Content

I prefer - and I recommend - a minimalist approach to the content of your business cards. Here is a list of the possible content and my recommendations. The list is presented with the simplest recommendations first.

Photograph

Photographs on business cards are not yet so accepted that I would recommend them for management consultants. They are still associated with - and mainly used by - estate agents and car dealers.

Fax number

Leave it off. People dealing with management consultants rarely use faxes, and especially not for their early contacts. You will find that the early contacts will be by telephone and email. If a client needs to send you a fax, then you can tell them your fax number.

After hours telephone

Leave it off, if it is your home telephone number. These numbers are for people who work 9-to-5 in their office and who are available for emergencies at home in the evening. This is not the pattern of management consulting. You may not be in your office for days at a time. You may work at home during the day. You may be out with prospects and clients during the evening.

Mobile telephone

You should certainly include this, provided that your mobile telephone is always either answered by you or switched to a mode that can take a message. A caller should not reach the ‘dead end’ of a recorded message that tells them that your telephone is out of the area or switched off. Consider carefuly whether you want to provide a continuous contact through your mobile telephone.

Main company number

Always have your main company telephone number on your card, and on everyone else's cards.

Direct dial number

Your direct dial number can be useful, especially if you are not available and your system can take a message or divert the call to someone else, such as your secretary.

Consider this. If you have your direct dial number on your card and other people in your business have only the main company number, this can give a bad impression of privilege at the higher levels of your business.

If you do not have your direct dial number on your card, you can write it on when you give your card to a prospect or client. This implies that you do not give your direct dial number to everyone, and that you value this person highly enough to give it to them.

Physical address

Consider leaving this off too. Most of your contacts with prospects will be at their premises, so they will not need to know where your offices are.

Beware of putting your physical address on your cards just because you think that it is an impressive address or because you have naming rights on your building. ‘Level 5, Blakey House’ may look impressive to me, but my prospects might imagine that I am over-priced, on the basis that someone has to pay for this impressive address.

Website URL

You may consider leaving off your website URL if your email address contains it. From my email address ‘djb@consultingjournal.com’, you can work out that my website URL is probably ‘www.consultingjournal.com’. If your email address appears directly above your URL, your card can look cluttered because of the repetition.

email: djb@consultingjournal.com
web: www.consultingjournal.com

If that looks cluttered to you, then consider leaving the website URL off.

One further consideration is the content of your website. If it has really good, strong content that your clients will find useful, then you should have it on your card. If it does not have strong content that will capture the interest of your prospects and clients, then leave it off.

Position

Do not inflate your position if you are a one-person business. It is better to have no position at all.

If you own the business, then consider using your position within the business. But consider also whether this will imply that you are no longer actually working as a consultant. If your card gives your position as ‘chief executive’, it appears that you are now longer an active consultant. You should consider leaving your position off your card entirely.

If you work in a consulting company, you may not have a choice. If you are a managing consultant, and your role is mainly that of managing a team of consultants, then this is fine. If you are a senior consultant, it can raise some problems. In some situations, a consulting assignment can be led by some that has ‘consultant’ on their card. It can look odd to some clients if you - a ‘senior consultant’ - are working for them on that assignment. You might try to persuade your company to leave the various gradations of ‘consultant’ off their business cards. I know of a company where all consultants just have ‘consultant’ on their cards. The actual hierarchy is a matter for that company, not for their clients.

Your name

Your name should obviously be on your card, but I have seen business cards that only had the company details on. I think that this was a way of saving money. The company had a single card printed for everyone and then the individuals were expected to write their own details on the cards as they handed them out. This is cheap rather than economic.

You should think about the name that you wish to use. As an example, I usually have ‘David J Blakey’ on my cards. If your name is Robert Smith and you prefer to be called ‘Bob’, then you might consider having ‘Bob Smith’ on your cards. I dislike ‘Robert (Bob) Smith’, not only because it looks fussy but also because someone may not know whether they should call you Bob immediately.

If you have a qualification that is relevant to your area of consulting and is not common, then you should consider including it. So, ‘BSc (Econ)’ is relevant for a consultant specializing in economics. ‘BSc’ is usually not relevant, particularly if that degree was gained in a subject other than the consultant's specialities. Engineering qualifications should be given, even if they are beyond your current consulting areas.

If you have a membership of an organization relevant to your area of consulting, then you should consider adding it. If you are a member of the Institute of Directors and you are a consultant in the areas of strategic management or corporate governance, then your ‘MInstD’ is relevant. Membership of institutes or societies probably not relevant, unless your membership is at a higher level than a paid subscription. You should only add these to your name if they are a qualification reached by examination or if they have been awarded by the institute or society for your achievements in your speciality.

If you are entitled to a military rank, and it is relevant, then consider using it. If you are a retired colonel and you specialize in consulting to the military sector or in the logistics function, then ‘Col Bob Smith’ is very relevant. Military awards are a matter of choice. Consultants do have to have a certain amount of courage, but people who have awards for courage are often reluctant to use them. Do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

If you have a hereditary title, then consider using it. A baronetcy can appear as ‘Sir Bob Smith’ rather than ‘Bob Smith, Bt’. In general, a title that has been awarded will be more useful in consulting than one that has been inherited. If you have been knighted for services to business, then you should certainly use ‘Sir Bob Smith’.

Summary

You can certainly have the following on your card:

your name;
your company;
your company logo;
your postal address;
your company telephone number;
your mobile telephone number; and
your email address.

Giving your cards

You are, of course, keen for your prospects to have your business card. That should not mean that you appear to be desperate for them to have it. So you should avoid thrusting it towards them and saying ‘Here's my card’.

Also, you should let your prospects know that you are giving them your business card because you want to do business with them. So you should avoid just exchanging business cards. That is networking, not prospecting.

Some of the advice that is usually given is for you to say ‘May I have your card?’. As they take out their card, they are supposed to say ‘May I have yours?’. If they don't say that, then you are supposed to say ‘May I give you my card?’. Unless they say ‘No’, you can exchange cards with them. This scenario is all very polite and well-mannered, but it is not going to get you any business. What it will get you is a card.

So here is what you should do.

You have been talking about consulting, and ways in which you may be able to help them. Do not present your card as soon as you meet them. Try to avoid giving them your card at the start of a meeting. Sometimes, however, a prospect will go through the card-exchange ritual early.

If they have not already got your card, say ‘I'd like you to have my card,’ as you begin to take it out.
As you give it to them, say ‘I'd like you to call me to talk further about what I can do for you.’
If they have not already given you their card, ask for it. As they give it to you, say ‘I'll call you next week, anyway.’

If you have enchanged cards at the beginning of a meeting, and if you have not arranged any follow-up during the meeting, then the scenario is slightly different.

Say ‘You have my card. I'd like you to call me to talk further about what I can do for you.’
Hold their card and look at it. Say ‘I'll call you next week, anyway.’

These scenarios imply that your card is an invitation. When they give you their card, they are inviting you to contact them.

If you can see that they are not serious about giving you business, or if they have plans for some time in the future, you will waste your time if you exchange cards with them. I advise you not to adopt the Japanese approach of exchanging cards as a meaningless gesture. Only do it if you and the other person are serious.

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